Monday, April 22, 2013

These are the instructions on adopting your own Indie Author or Artist (located below):

Adopting an Indie Author and Artist is pretty simple:

Support your local Indie Author and Artist so they can promote more creativity in the entertainment 'industry' (it's only an industry if you treat it as such), whether it be in music or book publishing; any recommendations or suggestions of authors/artists, I will put them up here with a reel of their music or images of their books/ebooks...even paintings with descriptions. I like to find new people to look out for.

When you help them get discovered (by going to local shows, hearing interviews, which I will be posting up here when I get the information, etc) as you adopt an Indie author and artist, you will notice more creativity in the music and books you come across and get exposed to.

*This is a segment I will be doing that showcases new talent that is otherwise unknown in entertainment. Thank You in advance for any recommendations and suggestions you have for a talent on the rise. I will try to check them out and put them up here. Everyone deserves to be heard and do what they love!*

Here's my suggestion:

He's a new artist on the rise in Atlanta, already doing multiple shows and gaining in popularity with his networks in Twitter, Youtube, Soundcloud, reverbnation, myspace, etc.:

Disney is doing it again. Teaching little girls to be the perfect princess that mostly keeps out of the way (until they're needed, of course) and lives to please their good-hearted prince, bashing and dumbing down girls who refuse the image.

Although they have gotten significanty better at showing stronger female characters who fight for ther princes as well as friends & families (they finally have social lives outside of the guy, people!).

Every time I watch Disney channel though, I go back in time; a time where gender inequality was more prevalent and open. Where certain men affirmed why they were superior to women without the sting of political correctness.

After all, in some cases, woman are still paid less than men (though this isn't so bad when you take into account some of the leadership positions women are more accessible to now). Although we've countered some of these attitudes by seeing more women in higher positions at work and the small insurgence of stay-at-home dads or very active dads getting more involved in the day-to-day parenting of their children in the recent years, within Disney, the men-as-superior scenario is realized yet again in the modern era of PC Correctness and anti-discriminatory rhetoric; except Disney doesn't have to be so covert about it.

Maybe because parents turn on Disney, the mega kid-center of entertainment, and expect nothing but its wholesome messages to be absorbed within their children.

This gives Disney an opportunity to indoctrinate kids to the old ways.

Just the other day, I came across my younger brothers watching a Disney channel show called Mr. Young.

In this particular episode, taking place in a high school classroom, Mr. Young's high-school kids have to take a mandatory career aptitude test in the hopes of revealing the career path that best suits their traits and skills.

When the principal finds out that one of the students, a blonde girl, did not take the test, he tracks her down and further presses the question at her absence; her response?

"I didn't want to take the test because I already know what I want to do. I'm going to be a trophy wife," said she in a high, giggling voice.

Of course, the middle-aged teacher looks at her dumbfounded...and then she continues to explain as if he doesn't know what a trophy wife is: "You know, get a guy to buy me jewelry and give me money."

Cue the designated laughing track present in almost all Disney shows, since the joke is not funny enough to warrant saying it in front of a real audience that would have booed instead.

There are countless other examples of this, but it would take too long to say it all.

Oh, and the teacher Mr. Young? Badgers one of his female students to wear a semi-sexy nurse costume when her career placement test indicates a promising future as a nurse. I guess it's not so bad because Mr. Young has always liked her and is the same age as all his students- Mr Young is a super whiz kid who graduated college at age 14.

Still, there's something eerie on his strong insistence that she wears the dress, even more so when he has a flashback fantasy of her taking his temperature and him being a little too eager for it.

I am not an extreme feminist in the slightest or the strongest advocate of Political Correctness (we have our first amendment for a reason and should only be barred from saying racial slurs and possible swear words associated with discrimination) but I do believe women should have the opportunities to work in their desired field, but that both parents should work at things; it's hard to raise a family without two salaries: why can't women be treated professionally enough to be a co-provider without it being frowned upon?

Why is Disney making it a joke for females to be anything but sex-objects and wives that just suck the living life out of their men and their hard work?

I guess because Disney and other corporations that feel this way aren't even giving women a chance to show them otherwise.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

1984 is one of those novels that many political enthusiasts seem to have read as a cautionary tale to what government could be like unchecked and without controls. In news articles I've read or news clips I've seen, there have been a few references here and there that were specifically directed to Orwell's 1984 when talking about the governments' faulty or sometimes terrifying moves. I have recently joined the ranks of the politically involved (don't badger me, I'm young), and understand why this would be recommended reading. This book is basically a warning against big, overly repressive government, and as recent events would have it, maybe a severe commentary on the things our government is beginning to do with the actions they are engaging in on a daily basis. Besides that rightly cautionary message, I didn't like 1984 as much as I thought I would when I first read it.

1984, which was its purpose, was very dreary and bleak. Right now you're probably thinking I'm being too picky with a book that at least accomplished its goal, but it had an extremely dark tone throughout. From beginning to end, almost. Some brevity or a little bit of humor would have evenly diffused the all-consuming depression it pulls you into towards the end. Alleviation and a bit of balance with different tones would have also done it some good.

But maybe its justified.

Too many mainstream news channels and government entities skewer statistics to always make a pretty bad situation cheerier than it really is.

The unemployment rate is one of the statistics that is continuously undergoing this sugar-coating and peppering-of-cheer process. Instead of unemployment being 8.7%, its closer to maybe 16%: and that's because we exclude the people who quit looking for jobs...so, their really unemployed by choice?

Anyway, I guess the overall dreariness could possibly be justified by another reason too.

A totalitarian government, or even a government with tremendous power, at some point becomes too dangerous to a free people to think the issue can be solved instantly once such a force takes over.

These kind of governments gain their power by taking others' power-the people and perhaps the different single states in its country. The federal government has taken over failing businesses before, therefore outstretching one of its arms into private life and the free markets.

More control over big financial industries (industries getting in bed with Government), more control over the people.

Okay, so even if I could justify its bleakness, there is still no way to make the ending any better; very anti-climatic with no insight into what happens now...now that no one has yet to successfully overthrow big brother.

I am not the biggest fan of reality TV, so this may be a little bias, but I hate how people advocate reality TV by telling me its not meant to be taken seriously. It's not that I'm taking it too seriously- its just so un-serious that it literally isn't about anything.

Take the other day. I was watching some E-news show that dedicated a segment to some drama that was going on between the Atlanta, or was it Miami?...on housewives of whatever show.

Again, it was about another fight or spat that occurred between two of the wives-what, was it about one of the girls stealing someone's husband a second time?

I couldn't tell you.

It is the same thing over and over again to the point where it all blurred together, even which city the housewives were in.

Wasn't the reason for reality TV shows supposed to be the excitement people get when we peak into the lives of rich and famous people or rich people in association with rich and famous people?

Well, obviously not because it's mind-numbingly boring.

I don't know about many peoples' reactions to having lots of money suddenly, but I would be doing a million and one really exciting, adrenaline-pumping things if I had the wealth that some of these reality stars amass from one or two seasons.

And that's just it; the arguments they have are so petty, and the women so grown (40's to 60's), you sometimes wonder why you are tuning in to watch something so mundane and ordinary involving 'sophisticated and classy' females who could do anything in the world because they have no worries.
Instead they fight and bicker, talk about who did this, who did that; even worse, who owned this or who owns that, breathing new life into the stereotype that all rich people are grubby handed, mean-spirited people.

Also, if I want to see a fight, I can watch relatives duke it out or something-and that would be slightly more entertaining because they actually have more at stake in the fight (it might actually be about a money issue-like not paying someone back)

The only reality TV show that I've found that doesn't have the same issue is Mac Miller's Most Dope Family. It has its flaws, but it really was a breath of fresh air to get away from the sameness that is the cat-fighting, self-absorbed females and their bored looking husbands on the side, or the all-partying and nothing else jersey band.

What stuck out to me was Mac Miller's very mellow personality.

He didn't stress over small things and he took every opportunity he got to have fun or goof around and be a normal 20 something.

Unlike Jersey Shore, it wasn't just simply partying at some dim-lit, neon lighted club with 'friends' that will let you get so wasted you didn't know you slept with someone the night before.

Yeah, 20 somethings can be said to go to the club a lot and get entangled in some sticky situations, but MMMDF touches on the camaraderie of a tight group of friends and how they really interact with one another in the uncharted background of Hollywood glamor and fame, all coming from smaller territory before their big jump to L.A.

It's interesting to see how these newcomers to Hollywood handle themselves in Hollywood Land (because let's face it, it's a different planet there with different kind of ('eccentric') people), even more entertaining to see that for the most part they are pretty down-to-earth in the crazy antics they pull on one another.

But like I said earlier, even this show isn't without its flaws. Although it was cool seeing in one episode Mac's friend accidentally breaking a plasma TV that Mac Miller instantly shrugged off, saying pretty loudly-"I got millions, bitch-don't worry about it" or something on those lines, and then later deciding to get everyone together and trash it completely for fun, it did feel like family home videos that weren't meant for the small screen, except for America's Funniest Home videos or strictly home-viewing with family and friends.

Although I get a somewhat realistic view of how they act in their new-found environment, it still suffers a little from being boring or not really showing anything unique to a person with so much amassed fame and money.

Maybe its because I haven't seen all the episodes or because it's on the more moderate end of the spectrum to where Housewives and other shows of that ilk (Basketball Wives, Love & Hip-Hop etc.) are on: Housewives and co. are on the extreme side of over-acted drama and Most Dope Family may be on the other end of very mellow and sated fun.

My verdict on Reality TV is that it can be insightful in some ways in relation to the lives of the people you care for most in the entertainment business, but it's the basest and lowest stimulation of the brain because then you're
watching people live life for you in a way you might live better if you were them.